Mediterranean migrant disaster gets muted response

Up to 500 are feared to have drowned off the Libyan coast while trying to cross to Europe, the UN’s refugee agency said on Wednesday (20 April), but a muted response to the tragedy suggests empathy is dwindling across the continent.

UNHCR said the 41 survivors, 37 men, three women and a three-year-old child were rescued by merchant ships and taken to Kalamata, Greece on 16 April. The survivors included Somalis, Ethiopians, Egyptians and Sudanese.

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So far, only Italian prime minster Matteo Renzi and a Maltese minister have spoken out about the latest disaster.

Renzi said on Wednesday that Italian rescuers were trying to recover the shipwreck and the bodies.

Renzi has been calling for European help in stemming the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean, asking for financial assistance for sub-Saharan Africa.

Carmelo Abela, Malta's home affairs minister, said in Luxembourg: "This tragedy is yet another horrific blemish on Europe’s collective conscience."

EU foreign and defence ministers earlier this week discussed a variety of measures to help Libya, from financial aid to a possible mission to improve the country’s police and criminal justice capacities, but did not commit to any specific measures.

Since the beginning of the year, 24,940 migrants arrived in Italy by sea, according to UN figures, on the route used mostly by African migrants.

It represents an increase of 4.7 percent compared with the same period last year, according to Italian interior ministry data.

The number of arrivals has been rising since March, as the weather gets warmer.

Over 150,000 migrants reached Italy by boat in 2015, the vast majority departing from Libya.

Niger has temporarily stopped all evacuations from Libya detention centres under an EU funded programme because so few are being resettled to Europe. Many of those that have been evacuated are pregnant, with some asking for HIV testing.

The EU got "limited" effect for the €9bn it spent trying to modernise Turkey in recent years, auditors have said. Turkey has been "backsliding" on reforms since 2013 due to "lack of political will", the European Court of Auditors found.

The EU got "limited" effect for the €9bn it spent trying to modernise Turkey in recent years, auditors have said. Turkey has been "backsliding" on reforms since 2013 due to "lack of political will", the European Court of Auditors found.